When I Found You

Catherine Ryan Hyde

(Black Swan, £6.99)

Nathan McCann is middle-aged and unhappy in his marriage. But everything changes when he discovers an abandoned newborn baby while out with his dog one morning in 1960.

Nathan wants to adopt the boy, but the baby is sent to live with his grandmother. However, Nathan finds a way to stay linked with the child's life, albeit from afar – until years later, when a confused and troubled lad turns up at his door. After years of wondering how things might have been, had he become the boy’s father, Nathan suddenly faces a very different reality.

This could easily have been predictable and simplistic, but Catherine Ryan Hyde's sensitivity and sympathetic observations make this an engaging and touching read.

By letting us witness the journey of a struggling young soul from the different perspectives of the main characters, the American writer keeps you interested and surprised until the end in her latest novel.

Abigail Jackson

The Year Of The Flood

Margaret Atwood

(Bloomsbury, £18.99)

Margaret Atwood’s ability to imagine new and often frightening outcomes for society has long been her trademark. The award-winning Canadian’s latest novel begins with the end of civilisation as we know it. After humankind has been almost obliterated by a flood, two women are looking for a way to take their race forward.

Anything Goes: A Biography Of The Roaring Twenties

Lucy Moore

(Atlantic, £8.99)

This exhilarating portrait of the era of invention, glamour and excess reminds you that we’re not the only era, to boom and bust. Enjoy reading about the truth behind that notorious decade of decadent living.

The Candy Machine: How Cocaine Took Over The World

Tom Feiling

(Allen Lane, £9.99)

Tom Feiling trawls through the narcotics trade and explores how he feels governments, in particular US administrations, are failing in the ‘war on drugs’.